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Buying external monitor, advice?
Beginner wants an external monitor to see how color correction, etc, will turn out. DVD’s will be played through friends and family’s TV’s. Should I just use a TV? And being short on desk space, how bout a LCD TV? Do those behave close enough to a CRT to make it good enough? Or should I spend a little more and get a lower-end “broadcast” monitor? Thanks
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6 Replies
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Unless you spend a LOT of money, LCDs are not good enough for doing accurate colour correction.
My personal recommendation (that several folks have taken & been pleased with) is to buy a JVC TMH-150CGU.
For $500 at B&H, you get a high resolution 15″ monitor that has all the features you need such as blue gun only, underscan, switchable 4:3/16:9, NTSC/PAL, etc.
You’ll also need to learn how to use colour bars. Vegas has this test pattern in Media Generators – Test Pattern – SMPTE Bars (NTSC or PAL).
Color Bars and How To Use ’em is an excellent article on doing this. -
Thanks Mike. I may get that JVC. Sounds like you’re saying that even if I just use a cheap TV that it should be a CRT instead of an LCD.
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You will also need a conversion device to run this screen through. Firewire output is the one you need to use since this is what Vegas supports so the device must support firewire.
One of the cheaper options and which works well is the Canopus ADVC 110 or higher. It will also allow you to digitise tapes etc.
Cheers
Jeremy
MJ Productions
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A camcorder with pass-through can also be used. A lot of folks have picked up second-hand ones on Ebay. If it needs repair (i.e. tape mechanism doesn’t work), then it’s even cheaper. As long as it does pass-through, that’s all that’s needed.
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You cannot use an LCD for accurate color and brightness information.
An LCD cannot be calibrated – there is no hue and saturation (phase or chroma) controls on an LCD monitor. White depends on the color of the backlight and black is only an illusion because no LCD can go completely opaque. (Display a black screen and turn off the room lights, and you will see a dark gray). Contrast is highly dependent on viewing angle.
Sony makes a pro LCD production monitor, but it costs many thousands of dollars.
Stephen Mann
MannMade Digital Video
San Jose, CA -
Mike recommends the JVC TMH 150 CGU. Anyone know about the Sony, for about the same price, the PVM 14L1? At B&H too, it has S video in, instead of just the composite in on the JVC.
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